A five-page handwritten statement from a patron at Classics Pub on Route 12, submitted as evidence, said Officer Perrault repeatedly used the “n word” to describe African-Americans while watching a televised NBA game.

Also, Chief Healey said his officers told him of an incident on St. Patrick’s Day at a bar in Faneuil Hall in Boston. Officer Perrault, after seeing a black man wearing a Guinness beer T-shirt, allegedly said to the man “I didn’t know they served Guinness in Africa.” The chief said the remark provoked a scuffle with the man, which was broken up by fellow Leominster officers, including Officer Perrault’s superiors, who were with him.

The Chief of Police wants him fired. The Mayor is going to decide it later this week. And none of this ever would have come to light, I reckon, if this dude hadn’t decided to yell garbage at a ballplayer who doesn’t care a lick about him or what he thinks.

Still, there is a lot of nonsense afoot here from the folks looking to oust the police officer. If you’ll recall, there was a lot of argument in this case about the term “Monday” — the slur the officer used — and its definition, which the Chief took from the Urban Dictionary. I have little doubt that this cop was actually hurling a slur at Crawford, but I’d like to think our civil servants aren’t making hiring and firing determinations based on what appears to be way too great a reliance on one of the biggest disaster area websites on the Internet.

This is somewhat more concerning: After the officer’s lawyer argued about the potential uncertainty regarding whether the word in question was a slur …

Chief Healey said what matters is that Mr. Crawford took it as a racial slur.

Sorry, that can’t be the standard. We can infer intent by the speaker from a number of sources — as the hearing here seems to have done — but we can’t rely solely on how the target of an alleged slur took it. Remember the fun little debate about “niggardly?” Boy, that was an exercise in stupidity. Again, I don’t think it’s the case here, but if we’re going with what the target assumed, we’re going to run into situations in which someone’s ignorance determines whether someone else loses their job or gets kicked out of school or something.

Oh well. Enough of that today.

(thanks to Big Leagues, who is helping us see this story through to the end)

Former Mets catcher Johnny Monell signed a contract with the KT Wiz of the Korea Baseball Organization, per a report by Chris Cotillo of SB Nation. The 30-year-old originally struck a deal with the NC Dinos on Thursday, but the deal appeared to fall through at the last minute, according to Cotillo’s unnamed source.

Monell last surfaced for the Mets during their 2015 run, batting a dismal .167/.231/.208 with two extra bases in 52 PA before the club DFA’d him to clear space for Bartolo Colon. While he’s had difficulty sticking at the major league level, he’s found a higher degree of success in the minor league circuit and holds a career .271 average over a decade of minor league play. He played exclusively in Triple-A Las Vegas during the 2016 season, slashing .276/.336/.470 with 19 home runs and a career-high 75 RBI in 461 PA.

The veteran backstop appears to be the second MLB player to join the KT Wiz roster this offseason, as right-hander Donn Roach also signed with the club last month on a one-year, $850,000 deal.

Brewers’ right-hander Phil Bickford received a 50-game suspension after testing positive for a drug of abuse, per the Los Angeles Times’ Bill Shaikin. This is the second time Bickford has been suspended for recreational drug use, as he was previously penalized in 2015 after testing positive for marijuana prior to the amateur draft.

Bickford was selected by the Giants in the first round of the 2015 draft and was later dealt to the Brewers for lefty reliever Will Smith at the 2016 trade deadline. He finished his 2016 campaign in High-A Brevard County, pitching to a 3.67 ERA, 10.0 K/9 rate and 5.0 BB/9 over 27 innings.

Two other suspensions were handed down on Friday, one to Toronto minor league right-hander Pedro Loficial for a positive test for metabolites of Stanozolol and one to Miami minor league outfielder Casey Soltis for a second positive test for drugs of abuse. Loficial will serve a 72-game suspension, while Soltis will serve 50 games. All three suspensions are due to start at the beginning of the 2017 season for each respective minor league team.

We are very disappointed to learn of Phil’s suspension, but we fully support the Minor League Baseball Drug Prevention and Testing Program and its enforcement by the Commissioner’s Office. Phil understands he made a mistake, and we fully anticipate that he will learn from this experience.